Year 2015 in Review: How smartphone brands fared in India this year

This year (2015), the smartphone industry with unprecedented growth, especially in the emerging markets like China, India, Russia, and Brazil. As a part of our ‘Year 2015 in Review‘ series of stories, we wanted to summarise how various smartphone brands fared this year in India.

This includes not only well-established international brands like Apple, Samsung, LG, and HTC, but also Indian brands like Micromax, Intex, Lava, and Xolo. We also take a look at how new smartphone brands like OnePlus, Xiaomi, and YU have performed in the country.

The Winners

• Apple – The iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus are considered as one of the best smartphones in the high-end category. However, they were sold with very high price tags in India. On the brighter side of things, the company sold tonnes of previous generations of its smartphones such as the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 6 in India. It seems true that most consumers just want to buy an iPhone, no matter how old it is.
• ASUS – Remember the first smartphone in India with 4GB RAM? Well, ASUS successfully managed to make a mark in buyers’ minds by launching the Zenfone 2 with 4GB of RAM, especially by pricing it attractively. A lot of consumers who wanted to buy a mid-range smartphone had the Zenfone 2 in their shortlists.
• Lenovo – The Chinese PC maker went aggressive in India this year. The Lenovo K3 Note and the Lenovo A6000 were in the list of top five smartphones in India in terms of sales according to an annual report from MySmartPrice for 2015. The company is off to a good start in India and hopes that it can continue to do the same.
• LG – Looking at how most smartphone brands started offering non-removable batteries and non-expandable storage, LG decided to target consumers who want those features. It did well in the high-end category with the LG G4. It offered a microSD card slot, a removable battery, a great camera, and a dual-SIM card slot. LG definitely is doing a good job in the high-end smartphone category, but its efforts in the mid-range or entry-level price categories seem lacklustre though.
• YU – The Micromax-backed smartphone brand tied up with Cyanogen to offer optimised smartphones. The company launched four smartphones in India this year and whether or not their products are good, they at least managed to attract a lot of attention from consumers.
• Motorola – After the company’s entry in the Indian market with the Moto G, which was a game changer, Motorola has launched some really good devices like the Moto X Play and recently the Moto G Turbo Edition. Even though not spec-heavy, they actually perform quite well, have good build quality, ergonomics, cellular performance, and loudspeakers.
• OnePlus – After the immense success of OnePlus One, the company took forward its initiative of releasing ‘Flagship Killer’ smartphones with the OnePlus 2. Even though it added many new-age features like a USB Type-C port, a fingerprint sensor, and a much improved camera, there were some cut corners as well. However, when you look at the company’s OxygenOS, you can understand that it’s going in the right direction.
• Samsung – Remember how Samsung got bashed by consumers for releasing a high-end smartphone with badly done software and cheap-feeling exterior design? Well, Samsung completely changed its path with the Galaxy S6. Its new products beautiful, well-built, and the software has improved immensely. Even mid-range devices like the Galaxy J and the Galaxy On series offer good battery life and reliability. The definitely appears that it has set out on a correct path.
• Xiaomi – The Chinese smartphone brand kept its game strong in the entry-level and mid-range price category by launching well-specced devices like the Redmi 2 Prime and the Mi 4i. However, it needs to work on software and improve its after-sales support.

The Losers

• Gionee – The smartphone brand lost its sheen to brands like OnePlus, YU, Xiaomi, and Lenovo. Once known for offering value-for-money smartphones, Gionee has failed to entice a similar feeling among consumers this year. We feel that the company should focus more on improving the software quality on its devices and reduce the bloatware.
• HTC – The company continued its age old habit of releasing pathetic cameras in its smartphones this year. HTC needs to understand that it cannot succeed in the high-end market without offering a competing camera.
• Microsoft (formerly Nokia) – Too late to the smartphone party, Microsoft’s attempt at making Windows as the alternative to iOS and Android has failed terribly. Not only it released Windows 10 Mobile too late, its latest smartphones – the Lumia 950 and the Lumia 950 XL – offered below par design and build quality.
• Sony – Good on paper, but not so impressive in real life usage. That’s the story with Sony as always. The Sony Xperia Z5 and the Xperia Z5 Compact couldn’t compete with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S6/S6 edge/Note 5, the LG G4 and the Apple iPhone 6s Plus even though it is the strongest in terms of on-paper specs.

The Dark Horses

• BlackBerry – Although it did not launch its first ever full-fledged Android smartphone in India yet, people are pretty excited about the Priv. The company managed to sell more units of BlackBerry Priv this quarter than it sold BBOS 10-powered devices in Q3 2015.
• Huawei – It is the biggest smartphone brand in China, and it made a Nexus smartphone this year to show the world that it can make a class-leading smartphone for the international audience. The Huawei Nexus 6P is considered to be one of the best smartphone this year. It also did a fairly decent job with the Honor brand in India as it released some interesting and well-performing devices.
• Intex – The company claimed that it became the second largest smartphone vendor in India after Samsung. The numbers were trashed by Micromax, but it seems that Intex has managed to sell a lot of smartphones in India with the help of aggressive marketing.

Everybody Else

Other brands like Lava, Meizu, Micromax, Oppo, Vivo, and Xolo failed to gather as much attention this year as they would have wanted. Micromax is still stuck with bad software and pathetic customer support. Oppo hasn’t understood the importance of pricing its devices correctly. Consumers couldn’t get used to Meizu’s software because it behaves different from Android that people are familiar with.

Xolo tried its hand at online-only ‘Black’ series of smartphones, but failed. None of its devices received the amount of hype that is associated with online-only products nor did they were awarded with favourable ratings from experts. The other smartphone brands that aren’t mentioned in this article definitely didn’t do anything interesting in India.

Motorola teases the launch of Moto G Turbo Edition in India

Motorola launched the Moto G (3rd Gen) in India earlier this year, and it is priced at Rs. 11,990 and Rs. 12,990 for the 8GB and 16GB respectively. Now, the company is teasing the launch of the Moto G Turbo Edition in India.

The company has tweeted hints about the device earlier today, and it may seem that it’s about the Moto Turbo (2nd Gen), but it’s not. The Motorola Moto G Turbo Edition is an improved variant of the Moto G (3rd Gen), and it comes with a faster Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor, IP67 water resistance, and Quick Charge compatibility.

However, other specifications including the screen, the camera, and the battery are all similar to the Motorola Moto G (3rd Gen).

The Moto G Turbo Edition features a 5-inch IPS LCD display with Gorilla Glass 3 protection, a 13-megapixel camera with dual-tone dual-LED flash and 1080p video recording, a 5-megapixel primary camera, a 64-bit octa-core Snapdragon 615 processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, a microSD card slot, 4G LTE, 1IP67 water-resistance certification, and a 2,470 mAh battery.

A PHONE WHICH YOU CAN WASH WITH SOAP AND WATER!

Good phones are getting cheap and cheap phones are getting good" 

This is probably one slogan in the smartphone industry you have heard of. Sony released waterproof phones, followed by others doing the same. Phone case manufacturers launched cases which can beat the heat and survive in water too.

But, above all, the phone we will talk about today, we will talk about a phone which you can actually give a nice scrub with soap and water.

Kyocera, which has done a line in toughphones for several years has now launched this soap-proof phone. Launching is slightly soap theme, the phone will be available in pink, white and blue options in Japan, don't let the kawaii design fool you -- the phone is pretty designed to take some damage. And ofcourse, a shower. 

According to Kyocera, the smartphone use is now so frequent that many users are looking for a phone that they can use, and like almost anything else, clean it later on. To that end, the DIGNO rafre has a longlife, extra-hardy waterproof coating. This handsoap-washable water resistance also includes protection from warm water, which you'd probably be using alongside the soap. 
If this much information about its soap and water capabilities is not enough for you, it is also rated for hot water resistance at 43-degrees Celsius, which is not included in the usual smartphone IP certification ratings. The smartphone is IP58-rated and features a self-healing rear panel, which we have already seen in LG G Flex smartphones. 
Oh, forgot about this, the device is also shockproof (MIL-STD-810G). The display can be operated even with wet hands and is protected by Dragontrail X glass coating.

Talking about the specifications, which seem to be pretty impressive the Rafre runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop out-of-the-box and features a 5-inch LCD display with HD (720x1280 pixels) resolution. Under-the-hood it packs 2GB RAM as well. The processor details have not been mentioned yet. The smartphone includes a microSD card slot upto 128GB for expanding the 16GB inbuilt storage.

The DIGNO Rafre has a 13 megapixel rear facing camera along with a 3000mAh battery which is supposed to deliver 20 hours of voLTE talktime. 
The handset measures 71x141x10.1mm and weighs 155 grams. Full specification list should be out when the mobile is up for sale in the market.

Lastly, after all the specs and features we would obviously want to know about its pricing. The Kyocera Digno Rafre will launch on 11th of December and costs about JPY 57,420 in Japan ( Roughly Rs 32,300 or USD 485 ) 

Would you want to buy this shockproof, soap and water proof phone? Do tell us about in the comments!

Motorola Moto 360 (2015) Android Wear smartwatch is coming to India on December 1

Motorola is gearing to launch the Moto 360 (2015) smartwatch in India on December 1. The company has even rolled out invites for the launch of the Android Wear. The invite image shows a circular dial and a hashtag #MotoTimeHack.

To refresh your memory, the Moto 360 (2015) was announced few months back at the IFA Berlin this year. The new Moto 360 is a successor to the Moto 360 that was launched a year ago. The Moto 360 (2015) will be available in two different sizes for men, along with a special edition for women. There is another variant of the new Moto 360 as well, which is dubbed as the Moto 360 Sport.

The two different sized variants for men come with a 46mm body and a 42mm body respectively. The display on the bigger sized variant is 1.56-inch with a resolution of 360×230 pixels, while the smaller sized one has a 1.37-inch display with a resolution of 360×225 pixels. These two new variants are much more compact and have lesser bezels than the last year Moto 360. The 46mm variant is backed by a 400mAh battery, while the 42mm display is backed by a 300mAh battery.

Here are the Asus smartphones that will get the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update

Ever since Google released Android 6.0 Marshmallow, many manufacturers such as HTC, Motorola, Sony came up with their list of devices that will get the update. Following the trend, Asus has also announced the names of its smartphones that will get the latest Android 6.0 update.

Here are the Asus devices that will get the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update:

• PadFoneS (PF500KL)
• ZenFone 2 (ZE550ML/ZE551ML)
• ZenFone 2 Deluxe / Special Edition (ZE551ML)
• ZenFone 2 Laser (ZE500KG/ZE500KL/ZE550KL/ZE600KL/ZE601KL)
• ZenFone Selfie (ZD551KL)

Asus has not revealed whether it will add more devices to the list in the coming days. The model numbers of Asus phones mentioned above should be taken into account, as Asus has many variants of a single device, and it varies them by model numbers. The company needs to simplify its device naming. Moreover, the company has also not mentioned any launch timeline for the update roll out to the devices mentioned above. We hope Asus will come up with more information about the update timeline soon.